ESPN is known as the “World Wide Leader in Sports,” but they also could be known as being the “World Wide Leader in Putting Their Foot In Their Mouth.”
I miss the days when ESPN was unequivocally the best at what they did. It certainly seems as though the glory days are way behind the sports network. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that the rest of the sports media world caught up, or if ESPN got complacent… but I do know that the network is nothing like it used to be.
The cancelation of Around the Horn was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Though I say that, ESPN still remains a place that media consumers have to go if they want to watch sports. It’s not as monopolistic as it once was, with alternative streaming services like Netflix getting on live sports broadcasts, but you still need ESPN to watch some of your favorite teams.
That’s part of the reason why ESPN just rolled out their first ever direct-to-consumer (DTC) offering, bypassing the need for people to need cable, satellite, or steaming television to be able to access ESPN. Now, consumers can subscribe directly to ESPN and get access to networks like ESPN (obviously), ABC, ESPN+, the SEC Network and the ACC Network, among others.
It’s an intriguing idea, and in celebration of the new way to consume ESPN, the official SportsCenter social media account sent out a post that read “All the icons. All the moments. All of ESPN. All in one place.” That’s what their new offering is, and no one has a problem with that.
What people did have a problem with was the icon mural/collage that the account posted along with the message. All the icons in one place, eh? That must mean that ESPN and SportsCenter carefully calculated and evenly distributed the icons throughout their mural, right?
Well, not exactly.
Social media users quickly pointed out that some leagues and sports were potentially overrepresented. It appears that the NFL and NBA were both represented by 10 to 11 athletes. The league that stood out the most? The WNBA. Granted, the professional women’s basketball league has been on the rise… but social media trolls quickly called out ESPN for including over 10 WNBA players while other sports had little to no representation.
The official SportsCenter account deleted the post in the middle of the night following the backlash:
Just for reference, the mural’s shortcomings were that some leagues were overrepresented (WNBA) while others, like the ones I’ve listed below, were either given much less love, or no love at all:
-Only 3 MLB players (Braves Ronald Acuna Jr., Yankees Aaron Judge, and Dodgers Shohei Ohtani… who was pitching)
-No UFC fighters
-No professional golfers (Scottie Scheffler would like a word)
-Only 1 soccer player
-Only 3 NHL players
To me, it’s very obvious that ESPN decided to highlight the entities that they have the most money invested in. They’re all in on WNBA coverage, so it makes sense that they’d highlight a bunch of WNBA players. ESPN also recently increased their investment in the NFL, and let UFC walk out the door to rival Paramount+. Thus, they featured a lot of NFL players on the poster, and omitted the UFC entirely.
But still… an easy way to avoid this? Just make sure the icons mural has even representation from all sports…
